One of our first discoveries when we went cruising was that not everyone
was like us. Living and working in one place and socializing with the
same group of friends had led us to believe that most people thought
and acted the same way we did. They don't (which undoubtedly is a very
good thing). The boating community has connected us with a diversity
of folks we probably would not have otherwise encountered. They come
from different backgrounds, have different opinions and are pursuing
different goals. About the only thing we all have in common is the fact
that we live on the water.

We've met
a lot of interesting people through our friends Molly and Howard. The
couple
seems to make a habit of befriending homeless boat
waifs, no doubt the result of their own liveaboard past as professional
yacht crew. We first met them five years ago in a boatyard on the York
River, near the mouth of the Chesapeake, where Howard worked. It was
late November and we were attempting to put fifteen coats of epoxy on
our boat's blistered bottom. In the near-freezing temperatures, it was
taking forever for the epoxy to cure; we had every heat lamp in the yard
clustered around "Little Gidding" and were tripping circuit
breakers left and right. Molly and Howard felt sorry for us and invited
us to their home to thaw out and have Thanksgiving dinner.

Now they
both work in a boatyard in the historic town of Oxford on Chesapeake
Bay's eastern
shore. Last week we sailed over to visit them, this time
in stifling heat rather than freezing cold. "Little Gidding" and
her crew were rapidly approaching meltdown. Again, Molly and Howard came
to our rescue. They lent us a car for the weekend and told us to join
them and some other boating friends for a swim and Sunday dinner at their
place.

Captain David Cook on the bridge
of "Chinta Manis"

The other
refugees we met at Molly and Howard's pool were David and Rebecca from "Chinta Manis" and Dusty from "Snapdragon".
We were all grateful to be saved from imminent heat prostration.

David has
crewed on big power boats for 28 years. "Chinta Manis" is
an 86 foot Stevens motor yacht. It has two 12 cylinder engines, two 32
kilowatt generators and every electronic gizmo you can imagine onboard.
David has been the captain of "Chinta Manis" and Rebecca the
mate for the past three years. The owner splits his time between a home
in Florida and one in New England. Their stopover in Oxford during this
summer's migration north was unexpectedly extended due to an electrical
fire in the engine room. Chafing had caused a short in one of the battery
cables, which then melted and shorted a bunch of other wires to which
it was bundled. The timing was unfortunate: the owner, his wife, and
their daughter and son-in-law were aboard at the time. David described
how they brought the boat back to dock without electricity.

"My
boss was at the helm without power steering and I was two levels below
in the
engine room. He yelled to his wife on the bridge to yell
to his daughter on the main deck to yell to me in the engine room to
shift the engines by hand. We came into the dock pretty fast. The spring
line snapped taut when we were three feet from the stern of the guy in
front of us. Heck, I've done worse when I could see."

Eileen chats with Dusty alongside "Snapdragon",
his current home

Dusty has
also lived aboard for 28 years. There the similarity between his boating
experiences
and David's ends. "Snapdragon" is a
30 foot twin keel sloop Dusty found abandoned in a boatyard and acquired
by paying the outstanding storage fee. He lives aboard next to the travel
lift in the boatyard where he works as a carpenter. His first four years
at sea were spent on an aircraft carrier. "I started out on bigger
boats and got smaller," Dusty deadpanned. "In the Navy the
only space I had to myself was my bunk. I dreamed of sailing around the
world in a boat that was all my own. The first thing I did when I was
discharged was buy a thirty year old 26 foot Chris Craft for $100. They
told me it was beyond restoration, but I restored it anyway."

Dusty's
most recent acquisition is "Me Voy", a 46 foot cold
moulded sailboat he bought last year. He paid one dollar for it - it's
aft end was rotten. He works on it most weekends as well as a lot of
evenings during the week. Most of the bad wood has now been replaced. "It's
better and stronger than when it was first built," Dusty claimed.
When he's finished restoring "Me Voy" he'll give "Snapdragon" to
his father. "Then I'll sail my dream."

At this
moment, we're at the dock while our engine's injectors are being serviced.
In front
of us "Chinta Manis" is being rewired. "Snapdragon" is
parked just beyond. David on "Chinta Manis" runs an online
yacht crew placement service on the side. Dusty
on "Snapdragon" restores antique outboard engines when he's
not restoring the boat he's living on ("I've got an 1918 Evinrude
that's in better condition than the one in the Smithsonian"). Different
boats, different folks, new friends.